The widely-circulated picture snapped by Rick Fernandez of Benoit Photo showing Woodmans Luck trying to take a bite out of Romeo Royale at the finish of Saturday’s sixth race could leave observers with a wrong impression of the 4-year-old colt trained by Mike Puype.

Consensus around the Puype stable Sunday morning was that Woodmans Luck was just frustrated over a few things – like finishing second for the fourth time in a row – and needed an outlet.

“He’s run second-second-second, and this time we think he’s going to win. Then he reaches over and tries to bite that horse. Runs second again,” said Jennifer Bramblett, assistant to Puype. “He never has done anything like that before.

“He’s very mellow around the barn, doesn’t act studdish at all, no aggression, not a mean horse. He’s just a mellow, nice horse to ride.

“Mike said he got bumped pretty good about that time, and that’s when he did it. He must not have liked being bumped.”